Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Apologizes For Cavalier 'Always-Online' DRM Tweets
Adam Orth, creative director of Microsoft Studios, on Thursday tweeted that "doesn't get" objections to DRM schemes that require always-on internet connection to play console games. An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft on Friday released an official statement regarding the tweets: 'We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.'" I can't help reading those tweets in the voice of Sterling Archer.
It means all of our "customers" (as I like to call them) can become part of our vast surveillance system
www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/nyregion/new-york-citys-police-surveillance-technology-could-bring-in-money.html?src=rechp&_r=1&)
And all that investment in social media marketing can be moneterized too.
Being able to track so much community activity both on the web, and more directly via XBox and Windows telemetry, is no longer just for our marketing sockpuppets.
All that juicy information gathered on so many people is a product we can sell as well not just to other marketing organizations, but also to "law" enforcement types as well.
Aren't we clever?
"...but we're still making it always-on anyway. Fuck you. Sorry."
"Well *that* blew up in our face. Let's sacrifice this guy while we pretend we give a damn about the drones and wait for them to forget about this before we get back to screwing them over, I mean, making an 'honest profit.'"
... that they made absolutely no effort to refute the rumor. At this point, I think it's pretty safe to say that their only objection is to how the guy said what he did, but they still are going to proceed with it.
Orthy sounds drunk in his replies.
This clearly doesn't meet the social media's need for a a public whipping so that we can all watch and jeer? When do we get our mob justice?
That explains why we are all being pushed onto a schizophrenic mess that nobody wants called Windows 8.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
lol, that made me laugh. Customer Centric Approach. I think that means they didn't actually plan on telling anyone, you'd have to find it out for yourself when you buy the systems and the games. I'm sure on the back of the game box, in small letters, will say, "Requires an Always On Internet Connection".
Be seeing you...
People at large corporates not realising their personal views carry the weight of the company they work for, we know it's not official but social media embraces the teenage minded journo who'd lose their job for reporting the same crap, which in turns creates enough hype that the real journo's end up needing to report on it, making it news about something that isn't news, and an apology made when not needed.
I love the internet.
Coming soon to a console/computer near me.
So the Microsoft Studios Creative Director's views have no impact on what he does at work? He has nothing to do with Microsoft. Wow. Then why is he a director? These Microsoft Corp. Comm. people are more disconnected from reality than I expected.
By the way, the new Windows 360 Office for 2013 ( or whatever it is called ) is moving towards always on cloud connectivity. And directors at Microsoft are actually idiots who have no impact on product direction. Give me a break. First, fire the Creative Director for speaking the truth. Next fire the Microsoft Corp. Comm. for regurgitating canned responses that makes the company look dumb.
Riiight. holding my breath now. News at 11. /sarcasm
average intelligence does not mean what you think it means. The autonomic nervous system is there to ensure stupidity's survival.
... Well, here's a thought: Not everybody has internet. I know this is shocking, but some people actually take their XBox, etc, on road trips, to friends houses, etc. Shocking, I know. So unless something really needs internet, it shouldn't have it because there are perfectly legitimate reasons beyond "zomg, piracy!" to not have internet. Secondly, always-on internet means when your servers crap, or you decide the game isn't popular enough, the people who paid for that game get screwed -- they can't play it anymore.
And for the second reason, I'll never buy a game that needs a DRM server to play. I play an MMO, and I can understand that the server is the game in that case, but unless you can make a compelling case that the game simply can't be played without it, I'm not buying it. Ever. And take a page from EA's playbook, Microsoft: Their stocks just took a big dive because of DRM and now one of your idiot employees is saying your company supports it. Do you want your stock prices to plunge too?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Is this a new position I'm not aware of?
We are very sorry if this offended anyone,
Typical non-apology apology. "I'm sorry you were offended"
Someone needs to listen to the This American Life episode "Mistakes Were Made"
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/354/mistakes-were-made
--
BMO
I understand the xbox is circling the bowl, but if they had any hope to change course firing adam orth would seem a natural choice.
Admittedly that is a low threshold to cross.
Customer Centric adj. Pertaining to any system in which the customer is trapped in the center and cannot easily remove himself. Originally this was accomplished through vendor lock-in and market share, due to changing market conditions it is now largely realized using various IP protection methods, including lawsuits against wayward users, DRM platforms, and DMCA crackdowns. If the newest legislation passes congress this month, we may should be able to add to our customer cenrtic portfolio by having over-zealous prosecutors press criminal charges on customers who stray beyond the bounds of the impenetrable EULA or any TOS we care to write. Currently customers are also kept centralized by the fact that there is no possible legal recourse to any malfeasance or negligence on our part due to the fact that all our customer-facing contracts specify that all disputes must be settled by arbitration, using arbitrators of our choosing.
See also: Coopetition, survival strategy.
Silence is a state of mime.
I know that others snapped to this, but it bears emphasis - M$ regards their "customers" as "consumers". That says a lot about their motives and attitudes.
I read those tweets and felt the sheer contempt burning through the internet, as did many other people.
If the always-on thing is required for the Xbox720, effectively Microsoft are saying "we don't care if you can't use your product you purchased from us because of a hundred possible reasons". Moving house can mean a month of downtime to get internet connectivity back up, nope, can't play games during that month. Recently an Australian telephone exchange burned down in Warrnambool - the entire area had no internet connectivity for a few weeks - yep, no gaming during that time either. A tree took out my phone line and Telstra took 2 weeks to get it repaired - yep, no gaming during that time. These are just the examples I can quickly think of.
We currently own 67 Xbox 360 games in this house, and have two of the consoles (one for my wife and I and one for our kids). If having the internet permanently connected for the purposes of DRM is a requirement of the Xbox 720, I guarantee we will purchase exactly zero consoles and games for that generation.
... wait, what?
Those people lie all the time. Any company, any sector, any industry. They lie in order to make a living.
For the truth, watch out for what they're NOT saying; what has been conspicuously omitted.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Dear payment drones, we apologize. Ok we're good put in the DRM.
Good leaders run toward problems, bad leaders hide from them.
By Customer centric you mean your advertising customers.. like Doritos, ect.. that pay for advertising on your internet only based system.
We the people who pay to license your console are actually the commodity. Games are just the commodity delivery system.
Thank you for finally clearing that up. I just hope that somewhere I'm referred to as a unit and not a paying customer.
Microsoft better turn this PR storm around by hiring my all time favorite PR Spin Doctor: Ocean Marketing, Paul Christoforo http://kotaku.com/tag/paul-christoforo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5cu5BRZc3M8
"This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers."
So what was he doing representing you online? A twitter hacker?
We're sorry that our employee chose to justify always-online DRM by saying that what the customer wants doesn't really matter and they should just suck it up. In the future we'll be sure to only try to justify it by saying that it's a feature that will benefit the customer.
No idea why your comment is modded down. I read the tweets in the voice of Coach McGuirk.
Obviously someone cares, otherwise Valve wouldn't be throwing resources at an apparently dead market. Oh, and I care. That's at least one person.
As for the Dell-Alienwar announcement, ArsTechnica covered it. They're ultimately a far better tech site than Slashdot is, but I think Slashdot has a better selection of commenters.
Thats the windows 8 response about the hidden off button. This response regarding the X-BOX isn't all that surprising.
.
Such a conundrum for Redmond.....
I'm a game collector myself, I've bought 3 Xbox 360 consoles and over 150 games on that platform this generation. I will also buy exactly ZERO if the always on DRM is implemented.
For me the biggest problem is the the fact that the games have a finite time after which they will not work. The servers will not be available forever and if I'm spending money on game I want to know that I'll still be able to play them 10 years, 20 years or even further in the future. I have games that I bought in the late 80s and early 90s that I still play, it stands to reason that if I buy games next generation I will want to play them again in the distant future, but that's not going to happen if "Always on" becomes a reality. Given a long enough time frame my having an internet connection is more guaranteed than MS supporting their server for the remainder of my lifespan.
This doesn't even take into consideration people like my friends who serve in the military, and play games in their down time despite not having access to broadband while deployed, or those friends who lost their jobs due to the economy and had to cancel their internet and TV service but kept their gaming consoles as a meager source of entertainment in an otherwise shitty period in their life.
Microsoft earned the lions share of my gaming budget the last two generations and if I were to receive similar gaming experiences in the next generation I have no problem continuing to spend money that way, but if they required an internet connection I will not be giving them any money what-so-ever. I have no interest in purchasing games with an expiration date.
Collector's Edition
I saw the reactions to his posts, and felt the overwhelming overreaction and hypocrisy to his comments. Now, before slashdot votes this to -20, stop and think for a second. While he actually is correct, sadly that is the way things are moving, I think not being able to play games if your connection is down is stupid and bad to a insane degree. But stop and think about how the whole game playing internet reacted to him. They basically tried to destroy a persons career - someone who has no involvement in the not actually officially announced product - over a stated opinion with a friend.
The reaction to his posts, however, are skin to the Christian conservatives reactions to Cesar Chavez on Google. The people fucking bitching the loudest.. NEVER FUCKING LOG OFF. It doesn't make their core point wrong, but assigning "burning contempt" to a guy fucking around with his friend in twitter is hubris, hyperbole, and hyprocrisy that only normally comes from people with an extreme politcal agenda.
Seriously. People need to fucking GROW UP. IF, and I state again, IF, Microsoft is stupid enough to require an always on connection, guess what? Flame the hell out of them. Frankly, they'll deserve it. But the shit I saw made up about a guy on Reddit and random other sites.. because a bunch of self righteous, outrage point seeking entitled assholes wanted to burn down someone that.. they FUCKING DISAGREED WITH. Makes me goddamn sick.
Awesome to hear Dell and Alienware getting behind linux gaming... I love my dell u2311h monitor, but there's no way in hell I'd buy an alienware system, I'll just build my own. As for Slashdot not covering it... well they have lagged behind getting tech news out for quite a while now.
... wait, what?
Any article posting containing references to Archer gives it legendary status in my book
(3) Slashdot's advertising money comes from Microsoft, Apple, Facebook et al, and they see the Linux aricles purely as an opportunity to smear competition.
It's not like there's ever much positive said here about FOSS. It's all just sly astroturfing and FUD.
Another day, week, year, another MS post FP /.
Missing borg logo? No problem! The Kinect EYE is always watching.
New logo proposal: THE ALL SEEING EYE.
If they're not doing anything wrong, then why would they object?
I wasn't aware that Slashdot had an obligation to proselytise for Linux or anything else.
Welcome to Slashdot. We're here because we're here, and because we want to be here.
If you are not here, you are not reading this.
If you are here, and you would prefer to be somewhere else, you are welcome to go there.
It's all good, mate.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
If a Creative Director, a corporate officer of a subsidary isn't considered to be a spokesmutant for said subsidary, who the fuck is?????
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
If you are not here, you are not reading this.
Wait - we need to rename the site Schrödingerdot. Who do I yell at to get this done?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I agree about the need for folks to do a head-check before reacting to something said off-the-cuff, but there's one sticking point... ...why did he use Twitter to verbally horse around with a buddy on such a touchy-assed subject? I mean, there are many, many less public means of doing that.
I play Devil's Advocate on a lot of subjects. I work with fellow sysadmins and developers, and I often say some incredibly crazy/provocative things (err, even at work) - usually to force someone into thinking through a blockage. But, what I don't do is use a publicly-viewable means to do any of that.
One other bit I should mention; it's not that the loudest gripers are bitching about the always-on aspect per se, but the unstated-yet obvious reason it torques them is that they want to retain control over the stuff they paid for. The always-on requirement implies that they won't have that control. When I was younger (I know...) I'd play Quake (1, 2 and 3, usually a CTF mod) at all hours, and between that plus goofing off on USENET, I practically never logged off.
I don't game anymore (well, almost never), but the very thought of keeping a connection open just to get permission to use a product I paid for? Hell, my skin crawls at the thought.
Little wonder the more passionate gamers are up in arms at the idea.
Just food for thought.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
But stop and think about how the whole game playing internet reacted to him. They basically tried to destroy a persons career - someone who has no involvement in the not actually officially announced product - over a stated opinion with a friend.
That guy is the fucking Creative Director of Microsoft, if he has no involvement with the direction the XBox at all, he is not doing his fucking job and he deserved to be fucking fired.
What he said publicly (yes, those tweets are public, even though he might have intended otherwise) does reflect on his company. This may be news to kids living the basement, but many companies have code of conducts for employees that have explicit clause for disciplinary action or even termination for employees behaving badly in public and damaging the company's image.
We've got two xbox 360's at home and 2 crates of games. My son plays his xbox in his room sometimes but it has no xbox live account or internet connection. With always-on DRM he wouldn't be able to play games on his system. I think always on DRM will alienate paying customers.
As usual DRM has little to do with stopping piracy and everything to do with controlling what people can do with their legally purchased products. In this case stopping them from being able to resell their used games that through DRM will now be tied to their console.
Microsoft Kinect Spy System (THIS ARTICLE IS BEING SCRUBBED FROM THE NET - Pin, Archive, Share this article quickly!
= Microsoft Kinect Spy System
THIS ARTICLE IS BEING SCRUBBED FROM THE NET. THE SITE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED TO YANKED THE PLUG ON THEIR WHOLE SITE!!! COPY/PASTE THIS ARTICLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO DISCUSSION FORUMS, BLOGS, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND ARCHIVE AND MIRROR THIS DOCUMENT SO IT DOES NOT VANISH FOREVER!
"So you just got the Kinect/Xbox360 gaming system and you're having fun, hanging out in your underwear, plopped down in your favorite lounge chair, and playing games with your buddies. Yeah, it's great to have a microphone and camera in your game system so you can "Kinect" to your pals while you play, but did you read that Terms of Service Agreement that came with your Kinect thingy? No? Here, let me point out an important part of that service agreement.
If you accept the agreement, you "expressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft, our partners, or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the Service; or © act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public."
Did you catch that? Here, let me print the important part in really big letters.
"If you accept the agreement, you expressly authorize and consent to us accessing or disclosing information about you, including the content of your communications⦠on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers, or the public."
OK, is that clear enough for ya? When you use the Kinect system, you agree to allow Microsoft (and any branch of law enforcement or government they care to share information with) to use your Kinect system to spy on you. Maybe run that facial recognition software to check you out, listen to your conversations, and keep track of who you are communicating with.
I know this is probably old news to some, but I thought I would mention it because it pertains to almost all of these home game systems that are interactive. You have to remember, the camera and microphone contained in your game system have the ability to be hacked by anyone the game company gives that ability to, and that includes government snoops and law enforcement agents.
Hey, it's MICROSOFT. What did you expect?
And the same concerns apply to all interactive game systems. Just something to think about if you're having a "Naked Wii party" or doing something illegal while you're gaming with your buddies. Or maybe you say something suspicious and it triggers the DHS software to start tracking your every word. Hey, this is not paranoia. It's spelled out for you, right there in that Service Agreement. Read it! Here's one more part of the agreement you should be aware of.
"You should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features (for example, voice chat, video and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions) offered through the Service."
Did you catch it that time? YOU SHOULD NOT EXPECT ANY LEVEL OF PRIVACY concerning your voice chat and video features on your Kinect box."
###
= "Listen up, you ignorant sheep. Your government is spending more money than ever to spy on its own citizens. That's YOU, my friend. And if you're one of these people who say, "Well I ain't ever done nothing wrong so why should I worry about it?' - you are dead wrong. Our civil liberties are being taken away faster than you can spit. The NSA is working away on its new "First Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center' to keep track of every last one of us. This thing will be
Well, that's actually scary. Look -- I don't like Microsoft and try as hard as I can to avoid their products (and somewhat successfully).
And I found Orth's babblings somewhat... pissing off.
But still: it was an opinion and we all can watch how it's being replaced by bland, non-human corporate talk having nothing to do with the intentions of the behemoth behind the faÃade. Is Newspeak better?
lol, that made me laugh. Customer Centric Approach. I think that means they didn't actually plan on telling anyone, you'd have to find it out for yourself when you buy the systems and the games. I'm sure on the back of the game box, in small letters, will say, "Requires an Always On Internet Connection".
Or it'll just say "Always On I.C." as a feature and let you figure out what "I.C." stand for and mean. Or perhaps just "A.O.I.C"....
>Recently an Australian telephone exchange burned down in Warrnambool
Move.
-Xbox Creative Director
For me the biggest problem is the the fact that the games have a finite time after which they will not work.
Here Here! Only a few days ago we pulled out our PS2 to play Burnout during a party. That didn't even had retro appeal, but the game was simply damn fun. I was just prompted by your post to look it up. It's more than 12 years old now!
Any DRM scheme which requires some activation from a server whether it be always-on or just a check at first install is an instant no-no for me.
"I have no interest in purchasing games with an expiration date."
Although in reality you always have. Any game constructed for a specific platform has a limited lifespan. And that's all games.
With the brilliant advances in emulation recently, I find it hard to believe that an always on server couldn't be emulated just as easily as the hardware of an 80s arcade machine. Just saying.
Fuck you, dumbass. You're a player in a high profile outfit like MS, especially in a noisy arena of computer games, and you shoot your mouth off in public with tweeter and god-knows-what-else, you deserve to get fired. Twice.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The most important thing I've noticed, in this whole charade, is this:
"loyal consumers"
You are not citizens anymore. Or customers.
You are consumers, please get used to it.
"I have no interest in purchasing games with an expiration date."
Although in reality you always have. Any game constructed for a specific platform has a limited lifespan. And that's all games.
With the brilliant advances in emulation recently, I find it hard to believe that an always on server couldn't be emulated just as easily as the hardware of an 80s arcade machine. Just saying.
I get the feeling that you seem to be engaging in a from of double-think.
Just so I get it right: You say that all games have an expiration date, as the hardware/software they run on will not be available permanently. You equate that to the identical impermanence of the remote servers in always-on games. Then you say that the latter can be emulated quite easily, just like the old hardware is.
But does that not mean that your first point is totally moot? Because as long as you have reliable emulation, offline games do not have an expiration date; especially if the emulators are Open-Source and thus easily (depending in the code) convertible between platforms.
I for one strictly believe that one of the very first software tools that is going to be written for the first off-the-shelf quantum computer will be an SNES emulator.
Always-on-games are a different beast though. Because instead of writing an emulator for a whole platform, thus covering almost all titles for it at the same time; you need to write a completely new emulator for every single always-on game, since they're all fundamentally different.
Isn't it funny how we're all different?
When I read the posts, I always hear the voice of Bob from Bob's Burgers.
To each his own.
The always-on requirement implies that they won't have that control. When I was younger (I know...) I'd play Quake (1, 2 and 3, usually a CTF mod) at all hours, and between that plus goofing off on USENET, I practically never logged off.
I don't game anymore (well, almost never), but the very thought of keeping a connection open just to get permission to use a product I paid for? Hell, my skin crawls at the thought.
Little wonder the more passionate gamers are up in arms at the idea.
Just food for thought.
Well, it doesn't look much better on the PC front, at least if you go with Valve's Steam Shenanigans.
I mean, imagine if you said something in the heat of battle that got you kicked from the Quake server, and could never play it again...
Seriously, saves me a TON of money.
But if you are not here, are you in a box. And if your in a box, and I can't see your, are you alive?
Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
At the 400 person company I work for directors are one step below the president, each in charge of their own division (e.g., information technology/systems, finance, human resources, etc.).
I agree about the need for folks to do a head-check before reacting to something said off-the-cuff, but there's one sticking point... ...why did he use Twitter to verbally horse around with a buddy on such a touchy-assed subject? I mean, there are many, many less public means of doing that.
...
Because people fuck up sometimes?
Maybe he shouldn't have posted it for all the world to see, available to the public.
When I state my opinions to my friends, I don't use a public forum.
The console will not have an always on connection requirement. Oh wait, I said that in public... (my broken DVD drive first gen Xbox360 requires a constant connection, because it's only good for Neflix and Amazon streaming services)
If you post for everyone to see, everyone is entitled to respond with their opinion. If one creates a shitstorm that may impact one's employer, your job could/should be on the line. The company had to make a public response over a private opinion.
BlameBillCosby.com
We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers.
Then why are you apologising for him?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Oops...too late.
FYI It's "Hear Hear" not "here here". You're asking the audience to take note, you are not befriending a cat.
They'll release the machine without the requirement, first gen games, fine.. then a year down the line, once they have an established userbase push out an update that flips it. All games, always on, new games require an updated machine.
At this point, without assurances that NO game will EVER have an always-on to play single player modes I won't be buying the system, too many rumours flying around and as they say, no smoke without fire.
After Sony's PS3 debacle and promises that linux support would never be removed I'm not even sure I'd trust a promise either mind you, about time consumers were granted some iron cast assurances like MS / Sony seem to want with all the ridiculous ToS
I see what you did there.
Wish I had mod points :)
"The sum of all knowledge does not imply the knowledge of all sums" Kurt Gödel (paraphrased)
Fire the bastard, he's made his views clear. If Microsoft's apology is genuine then they can't continue to have that guy working in that position.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
How is this basically different than that mess called Steam on the PC? Even the Apple store is more friendly. I tried to setup one account in the household to buy two games for my kids and without going into offline mode etc you can only play all your Steam games from one PC at a time even if you buy two different games.
That too isn't explained, at least very clearly, by Steam until you buy a couple games and try it and get warnings about the account already being logged in from one PC.
Presumably if the DRM is written into the console, it will be handled by ms, and there'd be only one always pn scheme to crack.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
I'm sorry, but I don't get the drama around Microsoft not getting it. Microsoft has been nothing but fail recently. It's the world we live in. #dealwithit
Windows phone
Surface Tablets
Always on DRM
Charging $$$ to watch your paid for Netflix account on XBox
Windows 8
I wonder what they will add this year to the fail list
That should be upvoted. A company like MS might have dozens or hundreds of "creative directors." It doesn't mean you're in charge of the creative direction the entire outfit will take. Somebody much higher up on the food chain would certainly be making all the important decisions.
Also, even if this guy were a bigwig voicing his personal opinion, so what? Yes, we know that practically speaking, he should realize his words, for better or worse, represent his organization. But do we really want to support the "corporate overlord" regime? Is that the way things ought to be? I for one would prefer to live in a world where I am not beholden to my employer while off the clock. I would hope that people are free to express themselves and their own personal points of view to the greatest extent possible. So, I'm not going to play a role in enforcing the unfortunate status quo -- in legitimizing it with this nonsense about "he should get fired." Does Orth deserve to get blasted? Yes, but not because he's speaking out of turn as a corporate slave. The fact is, he has a stupid, poorly thought out, dangerously cavalier personal opinion, which he placed on a public forum, and he should get called out for it, regardless of his title.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Actually all the ad money comes from Google. Turn off adblock, hover over an ad, right click, hit "inspect element".
MS, Apple, etc might pay Google for advertising, but I don't think I've ever seen an Apple or MS banner ad on Google (probably because as a general rule businesses don't pay for their rival's services if the don't have to).
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
Not all. I still play games as far back as Ultima IV. Programs like DOSBox make it simple to play a lot of the older games, if you have them.
While re-reading the tweets with Sterling Archer in my head doing the voice, I almost peed a little. Gold. Thanks for a making the horrific thought that I need to be connected to everything all the f'n time a little lighter. I would like my gaming to have the same connectivity as a good book. If I want to be connected to everyone else, I'll connect. F social everything. F always connected. I'll choose when I want to be a part of your data set thankyou.
You all remember OUYA, don't you? The 'Android console' destined to be a failure because Microsoft and SONY were going to crush them completely...remember?
Only now SONY and Microsoft have begun having a contest to see which one of them can completely tank their console sales the best and Microsoft just took a major lead in the competition... Not that I can really blame SONY as they're still smarting over how badly they got spanked when they removed OtherOS from the PS3.
Meanwhile with this latest salvo, Microsoft announcing a requirement for always on internet connectivity just to play the game, it looks like those triple A titles the fanboys were moaning about not being available on OUYA is a good thing. Instead of Planned Obsolesce games, the OUYA will offer games that will work darn near forever--and emulators will be available so you can still play all those old games you fell in love with gaming for in the first place!
Makes a nice HTPC with XBMC too I hear....what's not to love?
Have a Virgin Mobile USA smartphone? Give VMRoms.com a try!
Always-on-games are a different beast though. Because instead of writing an emulator for a whole platform, thus covering almost all titles for it at the same time; you need to write a completely new emulator for every single always-on game, since they're all fundamentally different.
Or the existing emulators could use a plugin system for always-on titles where you need to supply the emulator with the relevant plugin to emulate the online server.
Really? My Atari 5200 still works great. Great investment some 30 years ago. Heck I still use my SNES once or twice a year when we have throw a party.
Consoles are dying. The people who used to play console games are increasingly playing games on a phone or tablet.
How so? A lot of genres popular on consoles don't translate well to touch control, and though Bluetooth gamepads exist, I haven't read any evidence that many people have bought them. How would one make something like, say, Street Fighter or Smash Bros. for a phone or tablet? For a game like that, an on-screen gamepad would be a joke.
why did he use Twitter to verbally horse around with a buddy on such a touchy-assed subject? I mean, there are many, many less public means of doing that.
Because the whole thing was a microsoft ploy to see how bad the fallout will be when they ACTUALLY announce always on network requirements?
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Hear here.
But stop and think about how the whole game playing internet reacted to him. They basically tried to destroy a persons career - someone who has no involvement in the not actually officially announced product - over a stated opinion with a friend.
That guy is the fucking Creative Director of Microsoft, if he has no involvement with the direction the XBox at all, he is not doing his fucking job and he deserved to be fucking fired.
What he said publicly (yes, those tweets are public, even though he might have intended otherwise) does reflect on his company. This may be news to kids living the basement, but many companies have code of conducts for employees that have explicit clause for disciplinary action or even termination for employees behaving badly in public and damaging the company's image.
The bosses for the various Microsoft divisions have the title Presidents. Reporting to the Presidents are Senior Vice Presidents. Reporting to the SVPs are Corporate Vice Presidents. Reporting to the CVPs are Vice Presidents. Reporting to the VPs are General Managers. Reporting to the GMs are Directors. It may sound like an impressive title, but it is way way down the ladder at a company like Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft has more than 5 000 Directors.
Value only needs online authentication for when you install a title, they allow you to operated in an off-line mode for single player games.
What a complete balloon head, running his mouth off on Twitter using his real name. Microsoft should fire this guy immediately.
Or the existing emulators could use a plugin system for always-on titles where you need to supply the emulator with the relevant plugin to emulate the online server.
You seem to be missing the point here. It's not that you can't emulate the remote servers (you can, as pirates have proven for certain very popular games).
It's that you have to do it at all.
The SNES has between 700 and 1500 games (depending on what region you're in). The number of programs you need to emulate almost all of them: 1
In contrast, if every single one of those was an always-on game, you would need -- as you put it -- no less than 700-1500 plugins. How many people do you think will actually sit down and write all those? After all, some games might just need to send and receive a short decryption key. Others might need to load game assets from it. They're simply all too different.
Sadly OUYA does not ship with any meaningful hardware in it. Already-obsolete Tegra 3 that has OpenGL ES 2.0 level hardware (ie. DX9 in PC terms) paired with far too little RAM and Android OS...
It competes with cell phones and tablets in performance. And crappy ones at that. I'm sure it'll run Angry Birds but people will be up for a disappointment when they notice that ten year old real consoles trounce it in performance and there are already a veritable army of tablets and phones(!) that do graphics a lot better.
A nice toy, priced somewhat fairly considering the performance, incapable of running any real games.
The problem is selection. I'd buy steam if Civilization III or IV was available for Linux. (I'm a *bit* less picky about DRM on games than on other applications....though I still don't like it. But Steam has over the years built up a decent reputation. I'm still willing to pay a LOT less for something that requires internet accessibility...like almost nothing. Registration is different. That's reasonable, I guess.)
OTOH, what I really want is CDs of games that I can play on virtual machines with NO internet connection. The things I been hearing recently make me nearly totally unwilling to trust the gaming companies. If a constant internet connection is required, or even a periodic one, as opposed to registration, then that item has a negative value.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
FWIW, I have a WIN95 game that I occasionally run under Wine, so while you are technically correct (the CD won't last forever), you aren't correct in your implication.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
That's my suspicion. It may be a bit paranoid, but given some of the recent activity by gaming houses I don't think so.
It seems plausible that even when games that I desire become available on Linux, they will come with strings that I am not willing to accept.
I don't *want* a multiplayer game. And I don't want to need an internet connection. Registration is acceptable, barely. A requirement for continued internet access is NOT. Too many games contain too much spyware.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Do you *want* someone who so despises the end-users to have a management career in software?
He expressed the desire to injure an extremely large number of people, and when he was called on it he expressed not remorse. It's true that this is an attempt to injure him more severely, but the attempt is spread over a vastly smaller number of people.
Someone who intentionally injures a large number of people to a small amount deserves a punishment equal to the sum of the injuries done, plus a bit added, because it was intentional. If he would have injured 100,000 people an injury of, say $10 (we're talking about a purchased product, so dollars seems a reasonable measure), then he deserved a punishmen of, say, $1,500,000. I realize that this won't happen, and there is no judicial system means to cause it to happen, but he has no grounds for complaint unless he is injured unreasonably in return. Having his career damaged not only seems reasonable, it may get him out of management in software development, where he clearly doesn't belong.
Now this is a bit more difficult, because he hasn't yet done the $10 worth of damage to 100,000 people. He has just clearly indicated that he would intentionally do so if he had the chance. That, however, is sufficient to show that he should be OUT of any management position in software development. Maybe he would be a good manager in accounting.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
It's teh Internet. There are bound to be some cats among the readers.
And what if you simply don't want to spend $50/month on broadband. Well I guess you can save even more money by not bothering with video games anymore. Gaming used to be a nice hobby. Now it's just too much trouble.
So in your mind, wii u and ps4 are so bad that even if your favorite console choice becomes unusable due to stupidity, you'd rather play no games at all? Weird.
A nice toy, priced somewhat fairly considering the performance, incapable of running any real games.
If by "real games" you mean the $60+ one-play-throw-away games that focus more on eye candy than gameplay, which have flooded the market over the past decade, then you are correct.
OUYA has nowhere near the hardware needed to support such nonsense.
In my opinion, that's not a bad thing.
or cable tv .....??????
or electricty
or water
or sewer
What in the world were those folks at Microsoft thinking ? Why its almost as bizarre as making networking a part of the OS .........
Yeah, I think I'm gonna check out the PS4. Didn't they already say they wouldn't require constant connectivity ?
I hear the voice of the video store clerk from Family Guy. To each his own, I guess.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
" PS4 is heading to win the next round of the console wars by default, simply by following a low-key, low-risk approach" Someone is really defending that game industry should be low-key, low-risk... Maybe, low-innovative?
Dunno, I don't wanna be playing Call of Dasamedamthing in the next gen.